Should the freehand allograft be abandoned as a reliable alternative for aortic valve replacement?

Cryopreserved aortic allografts were used for aortic valve replacement in 80 patients between 1986 and 1994 (infracoronary in 46 and complete root replacement in 34). Hospital mortality was 6.3% (5/80) with all deaths occurring in the infracoronary group. Three of five deaths were in patients with endocarditis and valve ring abscess. Left ventricular-aortic mean pressure gradients across the allograft valves were significantly lower for root replacement patients (mean, 9.0 +/- 6.9 mm Hg versus 18.1 +/- 8.7 mm Hg for infracoronary patients) (p = 0.0001). No patient having root allograft replacement had early echocardiographic aortic insufficiency greater than grade 1 versus 28% of those having infracoronary implantations. Late aortic insufficiency of grade 2 or greater was seen in 46% of patients having infracoronary implantation versus 17% of patients having root implantation. Nine patients had explantation of an aortic allograft (eight infracoronary and one root). Reasons for explantation were as follows: endocarditis (three infracoronary, one root), technical (three infracoronary), undiagnosed idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis (1 patient), and prolapsing infracoronary leaflet (1 patient). Actuarial freedom from grade 3 and 4 aortic insufficiency or explantation was 77% at 7 years for infracoronary implantations. We conclude that the infracoronary aortic allograft has an unacceptable frequency of late insufficiency and its use in this position should be abandoned. The substantial incidence of late endocarditis in the infracoronary (free-hand) aortic allograft was surprising.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)